Kumar takes over as IG

RAJENDRA KUMAR took over as the new Inspector General of Police (Indore range) here on Friday. Outgoing IG Dr Shailendra Shrivastav has been transferred as IG (Training) to Police Headquarters, Bhopal in a minor reshuffle in the State police department.

Kumar, who is a 1985 batch IPS officer, is a graduate in Civil Engineering from the Benaras Hindu Vishwavidyalya (BHU), Varanasi. He is LLB from the Awdhesh Pratap Singh University, Rewa and has Diploma in Management from the Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. He worked as assistant engineer with Engineers India Limited, New Delhi.

After joining the police service, he served as CSP (Jabalpur) from 1987 to 1990 and as ASP from 1990 to 1996. He served as SP in Hoshangabad, Raigarh, Shivpuri, Sidhi and Satna districts from 1990 to 1996 and as Commandant of the 7th Battalion from 1997 to 1998.

Kumar served as DIG in the Special Armed Force (SAF), Bhopal and later as IG of the State Criminal Records Bureau. Thereafter, he was appointed IG Rewa and Sagar ranges.

Kumar said he would work on the principles of triple ‘T’ — trust, tolerance and teamwork. His priorities would be to maintain communal harmony, regulate traffic and procure equipment/gadgets necessary to make the department hi-tech.
He said special emphasis should be given to scientific evidence collection, as it does not change while witnesses tend to turn hostile in most cases.

Answering a question on increasing instances of interference by the saffron brigade in law and order, Kumar said he would require time to study the problem and only then comment on it. The media is playing an important role by raising awareness, he said asking them for their cooperation.

Commenting on causes souring relations between the IG and SP, Kumar said if there was a better level of understanding then there would be no cause for complaint. Shrivastav said his tenure in Indore had been eventful and satisfying, and to his knowledge he was not leaving with any unfulfilled expectation.

The outgoing IG said he had never seen as heinous a murder as that of Bhumi. He said the police have strong leads and are very close to solving the case.

He said the concept of model police stations and Parivar Paramarsh Kendras had been initialised by his predecessors P L Pandey and V M Kanwar, and he had initiated a small step towards cyber crime prevention by constituting a cell to combat the same.